Method of reconstituting lumber and product thereof



R. C. HORNE June 28, 1960 METHOD OF RECONSTITUTING LUMBER AND PRODUCT THEREOF Filed Jan. 16, 1959 INVENTOR. R0) C. HORNE ted States METHOD OF RECONSTITUTING LUMBER AND PRODUCT THEREOF 3 Claims. (Cl. 144-309) The invention relates to lumber which is upgraded by removing the defects therein and again making the product whole; and, more particularly, to a method of reconstituting lumber by which the product has characteristics of a homogeneous nature.

Under conventional timber growing conditions and subsequent sawmill practice, only a small fraction of the lumber produced is of the higher grades. For example, in the Western Pine industry, the industrial average of B and Better lumber grade, the highest recognized lumber grade, constitutes only approximately threequarters of 1% of the total lumber produced.

Since over 99% of the lumber manufactured is of poorer quality, a wide range of price exists between the various grades. Competition forces the price of many of the lower grades below cost and, as a consequence, it is common practice to price the higher quality lumber sufiiciently high so as to pull the lower grades through the mill. It is therefore highly advantageous, not onlyfor the producer but for the consuming public as well, if lumber of the poorer grades can be upgraded, or beneficiated, as it were, to borrow a term from the mining and ore-treatment art.

Advances have been made in the past in this direction, and such items as flooring, drawer fronts, desk tops and laminated beams have been produced, using lower and less-wanted grades, and upgrading the lumber by ripping, trimming and gluing.

So far as is known, however, the heretofore employed methods, and the products thereof, have involved no conscious predetermination and selection having as a very important end result a reconstituted piece of lumber having homogeneous characteristics.

In short, the prior efforts in upgrading lumber have failed to recognize the importance of producing not only a clear grade of lumber but one which has, as well, a substantial uniformity with respect to such properties as grain, color, texture, cell structure and moisture content.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method of reconstituting lumber in which the end product whose properties are very similar throughout.

It is another object of the invention to provide a method wherein the end result is a reconstituted piece of lumber comparable in substantially all respects to the original except for the removal of the defects in the original.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method of constituting lumber in which the end product is of a considerably higher grade than the original.

It is another object of the invention to provide a generally improved method of reconstituting lumber and product thereof.

Other objects, together with the foregoing, are attained in the procedures and products described in the following description and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective of a simplified form of a typical piece of lumber having a number of defects, showing Patented June 23, 1960 in outline the cuts to be made as steps in the method of the invention;

Figure 2 illustrates a typical relationship of the board components after removal of the defects;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective of a fiat grained piece of lumber, showing in outline the cuts to be made as a step in the process of the invention; and

Figure 4 is a view comparable'to that'of Figure 3 but with the components reassembled to form a vertically grained piece of homogeneous characteristics.

While the method of the invention is susceptible of variations depending upon the environment and upon the requirements of the end product, substantial numbers of the herein shown and described embodiments have been produced by the methods described herein with eminently successful results.

With reference to Figure 1, a piece of lumber 6, or board, is shown as having a typical grouping of defects, such as knots 7, 8 and 9. As frequently occurs, certain of the knots, in this instance knot 7 and knot 8, are disposed in rough alignment on the same side of an imaginary longitudinal plane designated by the numeral 11, the numeral 11 also designating the longitudinal saw cut or rip out to be made. The knot 9, on the other hand, is on the opposite side of the plane 11.

Either by eye or by measurement, a sawyer having experience in this procedure can quickly ascertain the number and location of the longitudinal planes or cuts which should be applied in order to give maximum yield. In very simple situations, such as that shown in Figure l, a single longitudinal cut 11 will suflice. In other cases, two or even more cuts are often required to effect optimum results.

In any event, the step of longitudinal cutting, or ripping, produces two or more elongated strips, such as the strips 13 and 14 in Figure l.

A plurality of pairs of transverse cuts, such as are indicated by the reference numerals 17, 18 and 19 in Figure 1, is then made, the cuts straddling the defects to permit their removal.

As a consequence of this step, the strip 13 is divided into three portions, 21,22 and 23, whereas the strip 14 is divided into the two portions 26 and 27.

Special attention is invited, at this juncture, to the fact that the reassembling of the portions 21-27, as appears in Figure 2, is very carefully effected so that the pertions 21-27, which are the remaining components of the original board, assume substantially the same physical relationship or juxtaposition that they did in the original board.

Thus, when the portion 21 is end joined to the portion 22 along the joint 31, and the portion 22 is glued to the portion 23 along the joint 32, the resultant strip 36 is very near in physical shape and size to the original strip 13; and the various characteristics of the components 21-23, such as color, grain, texture, etc., are substantially identical to those of the original strip 13. In addition, the color, grain, texture and moisture content of each of the portions 21-23 is substantially the same and the reconstituted strip 36 is therefore uniform in appearance, in working properties, etc. throughout its entire length.

Comparable remarks apply to the reconstituted strip 37 formed by end joining the portions 26 and 27 along the joint 38.

In other words, Whereas previously used methods employed random pieces, each of diiferent properties, and produced reconstituted lumber of markedly varying properties, the instant process yields an extraordinarily homogeneous product of very high grade throughout.

The same procedure is utilized with respect to reconstituting the entire board, the strips 36 and 37 being edge joined along the joint 39 in such a way that the recon stituted board 41 closely resembles the original board 6,

is homogeneous in all aspects and the constituents or components in the final product each bear substantially the same spatial relation to the others as they did in the texture and moisture content, to namebut some of'the important properties, will be of a comparably homogeneous .naturerthroughout, quite unlike the random situation which prevails under previously suggested procedures.

Perhaps homogeneity is of greatest importance where the wood .is to .be left unpainted in use and is, for exampie, to be treated only with-a light stain, as in the case of a molding. In this situation, the reconstituted strips 35 and 37 are cut to the samewidth and end jointed to form one long-continuous strip (not shown). from the same original piece, such a strip wouldbe of very nearly the same color and texture throughout, a

' feature of greatv esthetic and commercial importance.

Wood for use in making foundry patterns must also be homogeneous, particularly with respect to its Working properties governed by such factors as texture, grain,

structure and moisture content. I

As is shown most clearly 'in'Figures 3 and 4, apiece of lumber 51 having a slash or flat grain structure is ripped longitudinallyto form a suitable'number of individual strips; for example, the board is cut as'at 2 and 53 and yields individual strips 56, 57 and 58, each of It is common, industry practice, particularly in the Western Pine 'region,*to convert substantially all of the log into slash grain lumber. For carving, forming woodworking and pattern-making purposes, however, vertical grain is preferable. In order to achieve a vertical grain structure, the method of the invention provides for rtating each of the pieces 56-58 through ninety degrees and reconstituting them into a board 61, as by gluing the adjacent faces along the joints 62 and 53, the board 61 thereby having a' substantially uniform vertical grain structure, as appears in Figure 4. As in the previous 7 description; the resultant producLthe board'l, is uni form throughout in respect to its various properties.

While Figures 3 and 4, and the foregoing description relative thereto, refer specifically to lumber without deriects, it is to be understood that in the event the original board 51 contains defects, such defects would be removed in themanner previously described and shown in Figures 1 and 2. r

It' is also to be noted that in some instances apiece a of lumber contains, by chance, defects which are, in'the main, in transverse 'alignment rather than in the longi- In this event, a pair of transverse cuts stradcuts extendin'g'entirely acro'ss the piece. After removal Being of the cutout containing the defects, the adjacent ends of the clear, remaining pieces would be butt joined. In still other cases, only a portion of the defects, only the worst ones,'for example, would be removed. 5 In other words, upgrading or beneficiation in a variety of manners is possible, combinations of longitudinal 'ripping, as by gang saws, and transverse or cross cuts being a utilized in order to produce the pptimum yield for the particular piece being treated, r a Regardless of the combination employed, however, the

end product isone which is characterized by a homogeneity heretofore unobtained by any k nown methods. The components iuthe'reconst-ituted lumber are in ajuxtaposition markedly similar to that which obtained in the original piece, a superior product is yielded, an economic 'loss is converted to a gain and the interests of conservation are served. a

What is claimed is:

1. A method of'reconstituting lumber comprising the steps of ripping longitudinally an elongated board containing a plurality of defects into a plurality of strips at least some of which strips contain at least one defect, of cutting out each of said defects in said strips by trans- "versely severing :said strips on opposite sides of the deiects therein, removing said severed portions containing .said defects, of end gluing each remaining portion of each .ofsaid strips to form a plurality of reconstituted clear strips, and of gluing said strips to each other to form a reconstituted clear board, each of said strips being glued "to a strip whichwas originally .thereadjacent whereby said glued product is of substantially uniform homo- -.geneity.

, 2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said strips ;is endjoined to its originally adjacent strip.

3. 'A method of reconstituting a board having defects into a clear board having substantially identical characteristics as the original, said method comprising the steps 7 of cutting said original board into a plurality of strips, of

cutting each of the defects 'out of each of the strips containing defects by transversely severing said strips on op- -posite sides of the defects therein, removing said severed portions containing 'said defects, of end joining each of the remaining portions of eachof the strips, and of edge 4 -joiningeach of said strips to the others, each of said strips being glued to a strip which was originally thereadjacent whereby said glued product is of substantially uniform homogeneity. v V

References Cited in the file of this patent uNrTEp STATES PATENTS 301,068 Parmelee- June 24,- 1884 947,001 Kertscher e Jan. 18, 1910 1,778,333 Neumann 0612514, 1930 1,901,598 Herzog -Mar.14, 1933 2,275,975 McGlone Mar. '10, 1942 2,675,837 j Marin et al. Apr.'20, 1954 2,878,844 Andersson I' Mar. 24, 1959 

